Automation testing is a technique where a tester writes scripts and uses a comprehensive software package or automation tool to check the software. Essentially, It’s the automation method of a manual process that permits the execution of repetitive tasks without the intervention of manual testing. Software packages check automation capacity and makes use of specialized tools to regulate the execution of tests and then compares the particular results against the expected results. Usually, regression tests, which are repetitive actions, are automated.
Testing tools not only help to perform regression tests but also help to automate information set up generation, product installation, GUI interaction, and defect logging, among other functions. Automation tools are used for each functional and non-Functional testing.
Criteria for Tool Selection:
For the automation of any application, the following parameters should be considered:
Data driven capabilities
Debugging and logging capabilities
Platform independence
Extensibility and customizability
E-mail notifications
Version control friendly
Support unattended test runs
Types of Frameworks:
Typically, there are four test automation frameworks that are adopted while automating the applications:
Data driven automation framework
Keyword driven automation framework
Modular automation framework
Hybrid automation framework
Types of Automation Testing
There are three important types of automation testing:
Automated unit tests: These are designed to test software code. It searches for bugs, script errors, and other issues with the written code.
Automated web service and API tests: These tests allow software to communicate with other software applications in order to test for functionality, compliance, and security.
Automated GUI tests: These tests look at how software performs on the surface for users in addition to how it looks and feels.
Automation Testing Process:
Test Tool Selection: There will be some criteria for the selection of tools. Key essential selection criteria include: the availability of skilled resource to allocate automation tasks, budget constraints, and if the tool meets the intended needs.
Define Scope of Automation: This includes a few basic points: the framework should support automation Scripts, less maintenance should be required, a high return on investment, and the lack of complex test cases.
Planning, Design, and Development: For this we need to Install particular frameworks or libraries and start designing and developing the test cases such as NUnit, JUnit, QUnit or required software automation tools.
Test Execution: This includes the final execution of test cases, which depends on language to language. For example, for NET, we’ll be using NUnit; for Java it’s Junit; for JavaScript it’s QUnit or Jasmine, etc.
Maintenance: This includes the creation of reports generated after tests and that should be documented so as to refer to it for future iterations.